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			<title><![CDATA[General J Allen Brack & Alex Afrasiabi Interview]]></title>
			<link>http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/58380-j-allen-brack-alex-afrasiabi-interview.html</link>
			<pubDate>Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:26:20 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[Lore and I were given the opportunity to speak with Alex Afrasiabi (AA), also known as Furor, the Lead World Designer of World of Warcraft, and J. Allen Brack (JAB), the Production Director for World of Warcraft. We tried to keep focused on subjects important to the five-year anniversary and the long-term challenges and successes they've dealt with. 


 *Can you expand a little bit on what your roles are in the ongoing production of World of Warcraft?*
 
 AA: Yeah absolutely. I am in charge of encounter design, quest design, and everything that falls in between those two things, which is spawning creatures and dungeons, and essentially the story and feel of the world.
 
JAB: I'm responsible for the production and operation of the game. I have a partner, Tom Chilton, who's the game director, and between the two of us we effectively run World of Warcraft.
 
 
 *What has been your biggest thrill during the development and release years of Warcraft?*
 
 AA: The biggest thrill for me was in Lich King with the advent of the Death Knight starting area. Seeing that come together and seeing that format actually work.
 
JAB: For me, it was shipping Wrath of the Lich King. I felt like it had a really strong story element. It had a really strong interplay between Warcraft 3 so it was a long story we'd been telling from a Blizzard point of view. Launching that game with the Death Knight starting experience and the experience with Arthas and the dungeons was just an awesome achievement.
 
 
 *What major goals did you set in the first year of World of Warcraft?*
 
 JAB: The first major goal after ship was to get the service stable and up and running and allow people to actually play the game.
 
AA: That was our primary goal. We had the content, we had a fun game experience that I think everyone really enjoyed, but the biggest challenge by far was getting enough servers up and getting the service available to players.
 
 
 *What do you feel are the biggest successes you've had with increasing accessibility to newer players since release, both in leveling and in raiding?*
 
 AA: We've changed our model a few times. Leaving Burning Crusade we had, talking about raiding, Sunwell. Sunwell was something that really was the territory of the top 1% of our playerbase. We spent a lot of time on Sunwell. It was kind of a cold realization, even though we'd felt it before, we spent a lot of time, we had a lot of very passionate, talented individuals working on the game, and they love the game and they want players to enjoy the game as well, and that was one of those ones where it was, "Sunwell is awesome!" It really was an amazing instance and we would have really loved for more people to see Sunwell.
 
So what we really went into Lich King with was, first and foremost, that we want our players to see our content. We want our players to be able to experience our content if they so choose: if they're a raider and they want to raid, we want to let them raid; if they want to do dungeons and heroics, we're going to let them do those. That was the big win for us, because Lich King did do that, and we think Lich King has done it well.
 
JAB: I totally agree with that. I think the popularity of Karazhan was kind of a moment for the team, because for a certain amount of time Karazhan was probably the most popular piece of content we had ever made. Just the realization of how excited people were about 10-person groups and 10-person raids was really a big philosophy changer for us on the team. That definitely led to the 10 and 25-man split on all Lich King content and all future content, because we want players to have the ability to experience content at the raid size that they want.
 
  Those two decisions really go hand in hand.
 
 
 *Are there ways you think you can improve on this for Cataclysm?*
 
 AA: I'm gonna guess we'll surprise you. I think there's always ways to improve upon -- one of the great things about working here is we're allowed to make mistakes, and we do mistakes, clearly, and learn from them and improve upon, so I think we'll take whatever mistakes that we've made -- and there are a few -- and use those going forward with our raiding and dungeon philosophy into Cataclysm, and hopefully make it a better experience for the players.
 
JAB: Yeah we're trying some stuff with Icecrown, specifically in regards to looting, that is sort of an aberration from stuff that we've done before. Everything we've done is just a revision of what we've done before in terms of that stuff and I think that's going to inform a lot of the decisions we make in Cataclysm in terms of itemization and loot and how that works together.
 
 
 *This question comes from Xav of Premonition: How important high end raiding competition is to the overall health of the game, and how has it affected its growth over the years?*
 
 AA: I can tell you high end raiding is what birthed raiding in this game to begin with. Jeff Kaplan and Rob and myself and a few others were huge huge raiders in Everquest, and so that was a playstyle that we all really loved, and it was something that we wanted to see in WoW. The social aspect of it was really one of the big things there. You'd get all these people together and they'd cooperatively work towards a goal and the end result was very gratifying. And so, yeah, that's part of it right there. But we continue to honor high end raiding by continuing to have it. We try, I think with the splits now and the heroic difficult, we try to cover our bases now. We try to cover the lower end tiers and allowing access to all content, but at the same time, if you're a hardcore raider like Xav is in Premonition, we do provide the challenges for you as well. You can pick and choose what you want to do. You can get in there with the Lich King in under 15 attempts and hopefully take him down and we'll see how that goes.
 
 
 *What are the hardest decisions you need to make with new zones and cities in Warcraft?*
 
 AA: I think the hardest decisions is always... You don't want to stop. We love what we do and we want to always improve on things, and especially when you're going back through Cataclysm trying to bring up the old world and make all these great changes, the hardest part is knowing when to stop and knowing when enough is enough. It's good enough, it's great enough, but designers want to redo everything! It's not feasible, unfortunately, given timelines, but that's the hardest part for sure.
 
JAB: Yeah, we always want to do the greatest thing we've ever done. Since we want to make every zone the best zone we've ever made, that gets to be a problem when you're talking about the number of zones we've made and the number of zones we need to work on.
 
 
 *How do you keep making the new zones fresh and interesting, rather than "just another desert zone" or "just another mountain zone?"*
 
 AA: We have a lot of brilliant people here, honestly. I mean, we have a lot of passionate people. One of the things, it's interesting, is that all of our designers play the game. It might sound strange to hear, but it's something that does become a problem at times. They play the game passionately, with multiple characters, through multiple factions, and they all know what needs to be done. It's a strange thing, but it's wonderful working with them. We definitely have an eye out for 'the new,' you know, so if we're going to put a desert zone out we want to make sure it's a desert zone you've never seen before. So while we're not prevented from doing that, we want to make sure that you're going to get something amazing every time.
 
JAB: I don't think anyone ever comes to the table with the idea of, "I've got an idea, let's do a desert zone!" They come to the table with, "here's this one piece" of something completely awesome that they want to see in the game, and it goes from there. People will come up with ideas for individual little pieces that will eventually become a zone. We've always wanted to do an underwater zone: one of the things we've talked about with Cataclysm is Vashj'ir, the sunken city of Vashj'ir, how that's going to have a significant underwater component. We've always wanted to do that. People bringing up concept art, or different ideas of, "hey these are the things I want to see in the zone" is really... It's about those moments, those cool experiences that you want players to have, much more than it is about "let's create a desert zone."
 
 
 *How much do the concept artists inspire you guys to create something brand new... how often does that happen?*
 
   AA: Very often.
 
  JAB: Yeah, all the time.
 
AA: It's very common. I mean, our concept artists are amazing, and I think it's a give and take, honestly, that we inspire them and they inspire us. It's a beautiful little circle. 
 
JAB: You'll have the artist who comes in and says, "I have tried to envision this as you've described it," and wow, that's awesome, and we take the ideas to the next level. We'll have pieces come out that are with very rough, high level direction of "this is the idea for this zone, these are the kinds of things that we need to do, go off and create some neat concepts and let's see what comes back and see what we're excited about." That's a big part in it. We'll also do iterative concepts as things are coming together. We spent a lot of time doing what we call paintovers of Dalaran, where we take a screenshot of what Dalaran is today, and then artify that into a concept art format to give us the next step that we need to be reaching for.
 
 
 *After we've been adventuring in Azeroth for five years, what made you decide to blow it all up in Cataclysm?*
 
 AA: Blow it all up? [laughs] We're not necessarily blowing it all up. Certainly, yes, there are places that are blown up in a part. This was an easy decision for us. Well, I won't say easy, but it was a decision we went in with happily. It's the old world, it's wonderful in its own ways, but we've ... since the old world, since Burning Crusade, even since Lich King... we've elevated our design style to new heights. As we go through the old world and we play it -- like I said, we play a lot -- it becomes really obvious to us that it would be awesome if the old world met the standards we've set today. That was one of the big reasons going back, we wanted to make sure that the entry play experience -- the first 60 levels, or 50 levels, or whatever it might be -- are as good as Lich King, as good as playing through Lich King or even Burning Crusade. That's the big pull.
 
We'll blow things up when we need to. A lot of places have regrown due to certain issues and variances and things coming about with this Cataclysm, and we'll see a lot of that, too.
 
JAB: One of the first decisions we settled on was that we wanted to do two new races. And then the idea of having those two new races level up in the five-year-old level 1-60 experience was not very appealing. That also played into the decision, along with everything that Alex said.
 
 
 *What would you two like to see in the next years of Warcraft?*
 
 JAB: Interestingly, we don't really plan beyond the next few patches and the next expansion. We started the design for Cataclysm as we were wrapping up Lich King. Over the course of the next few months we figured out what the patch plan for Lich King was going to be and that's where we are right now. Right now we have a pretty good idea of what Cataclysm is going to end up being and we have some ideas for what some potential patches could be, but that's really about it in terms of stuff we've nailed down.
 
The real reason for that is because we're going to be much smarter about what the players need, what the game needs, and what the right decisions are once we ship Cataclysm, or once we get a lot more of the Cataclysm development done. Why go through the effort to make a 2-year, 5-year, or 10-year plan, or whatever, when you know it's going to get thrown away, because we're going to be so much smarter tomorrow than we are today. That's one of the things we say around here a lot is, "I don't know today, but I'll know... whenever we ship 3.3, we'll know how that turned out." And we'll be able to make smarter decisions about what the next step is. 
 
  AA: Yep. What he said. Totally true. Absolutely. [laughs]
 
 
 *Do you operate as a single team as you develop each new patch and each new zone, or are you split into subdivisions?*
 
 JAB: A lot of online game companies have done it different ways. The way that we do it and the way that we've really always done it is one team. We've got one team that's working on 3.3 right now, and we've got some people on that team that are working on Cataclysm stuff, but the idea that we have is that we want to have one set of leadership that's sort of making the overall game decisions because we're not making patch content and Cataclysm, we're making World of Warcraft. We want everyone to be tuned in and dialed into that experience on both the patch side and the expansion side. Everyone is in the same boat, as it were. 
 
 
 *As a franchise, Warcraft began as a real-time strategy game with Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. After three Warcraft games it moved onto the MMORPG genre. What do you feel the next step for the franchise is? Is there a possibility that it may return to its RTS roots?*
 
 JAB: We're really excited about the Warcraft Text Adventure. That's going to be followed up by the Turn Based Strategy Game. No...
 
The teams that we have help decide what it is that they're excited about making. The Real Time Strategy team that we have is currently working on Starcraft 2. Prior to that they were working on Warcraft 3 and the Warcraft 3 expansion. What we call "Team 2," which is the World of Warcraft team, started out actually making a different game called Nomad, and the team really got excited about making an online game, and making a Warcraft online game, so that's how World of Warcraft was born.
 
At some point, some team may decide, "Hey, we want to make a text adventure! Or a turn-based strategy game or something like that, and we want to use the Warcraft franchise, and this is how we could do it." Or the guys who finish Starcraft 2, they're working on that and they've got a couple expansions that we've announced for that, they may decide, yeah, it's time to return to the Warcraft franchise and start thinking about Warcraft 4. That's a decision for them to make, and is obviously years in the future. 
 
The answer to your question may be a little vague, but it's really up to the team. The teams get really excited about stuff and when the teams are excited, great things happen. It's much more of a "what is the team excited about" as a decision maker as opposed to someone from on high saying "we will now make a Warcraft turn-based-strategy game. Go, excecute on that!"]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><i>Lore and I were given the opportunity to speak with Alex Afrasiabi (AA), also known as Furor, the Lead World Designer of World of Warcraft, and J. Allen Brack (JAB), the Production Director for World of Warcraft. We tried to keep focused on subjects important to the five-year anniversary and the long-term challenges and successes they've dealt with. </i><br />
<br />
<br />
 <b>Can you expand a little bit on what your roles are in the ongoing production of World of Warcraft?</b><br />
 <br />
<font class="blizzard"> AA: Yeah absolutely. I am in charge of encounter design, quest design, and everything that falls in between those two things, which is spawning creatures and dungeons, and essentially the story and feel of the world.<br />
 <br />
JAB: I'm responsible for the production and operation of the game. I have a partner, Tom Chilton, who's the game director, and between the two of us we effectively run World of Warcraft.</font><br />
 <br />
 <br />
 <b>What has been your biggest thrill during the development and release years of Warcraft?</b><br />
 <br />
<font class="blizzard"> AA: The biggest thrill for me was in Lich King with the advent of the Death Knight starting area. Seeing that come together and seeing that format actually work.<br />
 <br />
JAB: For me, it was shipping Wrath of the Lich King. I felt like it had a really strong story element. It had a really strong interplay between Warcraft 3 so it was a long story we'd been telling from a Blizzard point of view. Launching that game with the Death Knight starting experience and the experience with Arthas and the dungeons was just an awesome achievement.</font><br />
 <br />
 <br />
 <b>What major goals did you set in the first year of World of Warcraft?</b><br />
 <br />
<font class="blizzard"> JAB: The first major goal after ship was to get the service stable and up and running and allow people to actually play the game.<br />
 <br />
AA: That was our primary goal. We had the content, we had a fun game experience that I think everyone really enjoyed, but the biggest challenge by far was getting enough servers up and getting the service available to players.</font><br />
 <br />
 <br />
 <b>What do you feel are the biggest successes you've had with increasing accessibility to newer players since release, both in leveling and in raiding?</b><br />
 <br />
<font class="blizzard"> AA: We've changed our model a few times. Leaving Burning Crusade we had, talking about raiding, Sunwell. Sunwell was something that really was the territory of the top 1% of our playerbase. We spent a lot of time on Sunwell. It was kind of a cold realization, even though we'd felt it before, we spent a lot of time, we had a lot of very passionate, talented individuals working on the game, and they love the game and they want players to enjoy the game as well, and that was one of those ones where it was, &quot;Sunwell is awesome!&quot; It really was an amazing instance and we would have really loved for more people to see Sunwell.<br />
 <br />
So what we really went into Lich King with was, first and foremost, that we want our players to see our content. We want our players to be able to experience our content if they so choose: if they're a raider and they want to raid, we want to let them raid; if they want to do dungeons and heroics, we're going to let them do those. That was the big win for us, because Lich King did do that, and we think Lich King has done it well.<br />
 <br />
JAB: I totally agree with that. I think the popularity of Karazhan was kind of a moment for the team, because for a certain amount of time Karazhan was probably the most popular piece of content we had ever made. Just the realization of how excited people were about 10-person groups and 10-person raids was really a big philosophy changer for us on the team. That definitely led to the 10 and 25-man split on all Lich King content and all future content, because we want players to have the ability to experience content at the raid size that they want.<br />
 <br />
  Those two decisions really go hand in hand.</font><br />
 <br />
 <br />
 <b>Are there ways you think you can improve on this for Cataclysm?</b><br />
 <br />
<font class="blizzard"> AA: I'm gonna guess we'll surprise you. I think there's always ways to improve upon -- one of the great things about working here is we're allowed to make mistakes, and we do mistakes, clearly, and learn from them and improve upon, so I think we'll take whatever mistakes that we've made -- and there are a few -- and use those going forward with our raiding and dungeon philosophy into Cataclysm, and hopefully make it a better experience for the players.<br />
 <br />
JAB: Yeah we're trying some stuff with Icecrown, specifically in regards to looting, that is sort of an aberration from stuff that we've done before. Everything we've done is just a revision of what we've done before in terms of that stuff and I think that's going to inform a lot of the decisions we make in Cataclysm in terms of itemization and loot and how that works together.</font><br />
 <br />
 <br />
 <b>This question comes from Xav of Premonition: How important high end raiding competition is to the overall health of the game, and how has it affected its growth over the years?</b><br />
 <br />
<font class="blizzard"> AA: I can tell you high end raiding is what birthed raiding in this game to begin with. Jeff Kaplan and Rob and myself and a few others were huge huge raiders in Everquest, and so that was a playstyle that we all really loved, and it was something that we wanted to see in WoW. The social aspect of it was really one of the big things there. You'd get all these people together and they'd cooperatively work towards a goal and the end result was very gratifying. And so, yeah, that's part of it right there. But we continue to honor high end raiding by continuing to have it. We try, I think with the splits now and the heroic difficult, we try to cover our bases now. We try to cover the lower end tiers and allowing access to all content, but at the same time, if you're a hardcore raider like Xav is in Premonition, we do provide the challenges for you as well. You can pick and choose what you want to do. You can get in there with the Lich King in under 15 attempts and hopefully take him down and we'll see how that goes.</font><br />
 <br />
 <br />
 <b>What are the hardest decisions you need to make with new zones and cities in Warcraft?</b><br />
 <br />
<font class="blizzard"> AA: I think the hardest decisions is always... You don't want to stop. We love what we do and we want to always improve on things, and especially when you're going back through Cataclysm trying to bring up the old world and make all these great changes, the hardest part is knowing when to stop and knowing when enough is enough. It's good enough, it's great enough, but designers want to redo everything! It's not feasible, unfortunately, given timelines, but that's the hardest part for sure.<br />
 <br />
JAB: Yeah, we always want to do the greatest thing we've ever done. Since we want to make every zone the best zone we've ever made, that gets to be a problem when you're talking about the number of zones we've made and the number of zones we need to work on.</font><br />
 <br />
 <br />
 <b>How do you keep making the new zones fresh and interesting, rather than &quot;just another desert zone&quot; or &quot;just another mountain zone?&quot;</b><br />
 <br />
<font class="blizzard"> AA: We have a lot of brilliant people here, honestly. I mean, we have a lot of passionate people. One of the things, it's interesting, is that all of our designers play the game. It might sound strange to hear, but it's something that does become a problem at times. They play the game passionately, with multiple characters, through multiple factions, and they all know what needs to be done. It's a strange thing, but it's wonderful working with them. We definitely have an eye out for 'the new,' you know, so if we're going to put a desert zone out we want to make sure it's a desert zone you've never seen before. So while we're not prevented from doing that, we want to make sure that you're going to get something amazing every time.<br />
 <br />
JAB: I don't think anyone ever comes to the table with the idea of, &quot;I've got an idea, let's do a desert zone!&quot; They come to the table with, &quot;here's this one piece&quot; of something completely awesome that they want to see in the game, and it goes from there. People will come up with ideas for individual little pieces that will eventually become a zone. We've always wanted to do an underwater zone: one of the things we've talked about with Cataclysm is Vashj'ir, the sunken city of Vashj'ir, how that's going to have a significant underwater component. We've always wanted to do that. People bringing up concept art, or different ideas of, &quot;hey these are the things I want to see in the zone&quot; is really... It's about those moments, those cool experiences that you want players to have, much more than it is about &quot;let's create a desert zone.&quot;</font><br />
 <br />
 <br />
 <b>How much do the concept artists inspire you guys to create something brand new... how often does that happen?</b><br />
 <br />
<font class="blizzard">   AA: Very often.<br />
 <br />
  JAB: Yeah, all the time.<br />
 <br />
AA: It's very common. I mean, our concept artists are amazing, and I think it's a give and take, honestly, that we inspire them and they inspire us. It's a beautiful little circle. <br />
 <br />
JAB: You'll have the artist who comes in and says, &quot;I have tried to envision this as you've described it,&quot; and wow, that's awesome, and we take the ideas to the next level. We'll have pieces come out that are with very rough, high level direction of &quot;this is the idea for this zone, these are the kinds of things that we need to do, go off and create some neat concepts and let's see what comes back and see what we're excited about.&quot; That's a big part in it. We'll also do iterative concepts as things are coming together. We spent a lot of time doing what we call paintovers of Dalaran, where we take a screenshot of what Dalaran is today, and then artify that into a concept art format to give us the next step that we need to be reaching for.</font><br />
 <br />
 <br />
 <b>After we've been adventuring in Azeroth for five years, what made you decide to blow it all up in Cataclysm?</b><br />
 <br />
<font class="blizzard"> AA: Blow it all up? [laughs] We're not necessarily blowing it all up. Certainly, yes, there are places that are blown up in a part. This was an easy decision for us. Well, I won't say easy, but it was a decision we went in with happily. It's the old world, it's wonderful in its own ways, but we've ... since the old world, since Burning Crusade, even since Lich King... we've elevated our design style to new heights. As we go through the old world and we play it -- like I said, we play a lot -- it becomes really obvious to us that it would be awesome if the old world met the standards we've set today. That was one of the big reasons going back, we wanted to make sure that the entry play experience -- the first 60 levels, or 50 levels, or whatever it might be -- are as good as Lich King, as good as playing through Lich King or even Burning Crusade. That's the big pull.<br />
 <br />
We'll blow things up when we need to. A lot of places have regrown due to certain issues and variances and things coming about with this Cataclysm, and we'll see a lot of that, too.<br />
 <br />
JAB: One of the first decisions we settled on was that we wanted to do two new races. And then the idea of having those two new races level up in the five-year-old level 1-60 experience was not very appealing. That also played into the decision, along with everything that Alex said.</font><br />
 <br />
 <br />
 <b>What would you two like to see in the next years of Warcraft?</b><br />
 <br />
<font class="blizzard"> JAB: Interestingly, we don't really plan beyond the next few patches and the next expansion. We started the design for Cataclysm as we were wrapping up Lich King. Over the course of the next few months we figured out what the patch plan for Lich King was going to be and that's where we are right now. Right now we have a pretty good idea of what Cataclysm is going to end up being and we have some ideas for what some potential patches could be, but that's really about it in terms of stuff we've nailed down.<br />
 <br />
The real reason for that is because we're going to be much smarter about what the players need, what the game needs, and what the right decisions are once we ship Cataclysm, or once we get a lot more of the Cataclysm development done. Why go through the effort to make a 2-year, 5-year, or 10-year plan, or whatever, when you know it's going to get thrown away, because we're going to be so much smarter tomorrow than we are today. That's one of the things we say around here a lot is, &quot;I don't know today, but I'll know... whenever we ship 3.3, we'll know how that turned out.&quot; And we'll be able to make smarter decisions about what the next step is. <br />
 <br />
  AA: Yep. What he said. Totally true. Absolutely. [laughs]</font><br />
 <br />
 <br />
 <b>Do you operate as a single team as you develop each new patch and each new zone, or are you split into subdivisions?</b><br />
 <br />
<font class="blizzard"> JAB: A lot of online game companies have done it different ways. The way that we do it and the way that we've really always done it is one team. We've got one team that's working on 3.3 right now, and we've got some people on that team that are working on Cataclysm stuff, but the idea that we have is that we want to have one set of leadership that's sort of making the overall game decisions because we're not making patch content and Cataclysm, we're making World of Warcraft. We want everyone to be tuned in and dialed into that experience on both the patch side and the expansion side. Everyone is in the same boat, as it were. </font><br />
 <br />
 <br />
 <b>As a franchise, Warcraft began as a real-time strategy game with Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. After three Warcraft games it moved onto the MMORPG genre. What do you feel the next step for the franchise is? Is there a possibility that it may return to its RTS roots?</b><br />
 <br />
<font class="blizzard"> JAB: We're really excited about the Warcraft Text Adventure. That's going to be followed up by the Turn Based Strategy Game. No...<br />
 <br />
The teams that we have help decide what it is that they're excited about making. The Real Time Strategy team that we have is currently working on Starcraft 2. Prior to that they were working on Warcraft 3 and the Warcraft 3 expansion. What we call &quot;Team 2,&quot; which is the World of Warcraft team, started out actually making a different game called Nomad, and the team really got excited about making an online game, and making a Warcraft online game, so that's how World of Warcraft was born.<br />
 <br />
At some point, some team may decide, &quot;Hey, we want to make a text adventure! Or a turn-based strategy game or something like that, and we want to use the Warcraft franchise, and this is how we could do it.&quot; Or the guys who finish Starcraft 2, they're working on that and they've got a couple expansions that we've announced for that, they may decide, yeah, it's time to return to the Warcraft franchise and start thinking about Warcraft 4. That's a decision for them to make, and is obviously years in the future. <br />
 <br />
The answer to your question may be a little vague, but it's really up to the team. The teams get really excited about stuff and when the teams are excited, great things happen. It's much more of a &quot;what is the team excited about&quot; as a decision maker as opposed to someone from on high saying &quot;we will now make a Warcraft turn-based-strategy game. Go, excecute on that!&quot;</font></div>

]]></content:encoded>
			<category domain="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/">TankSpot News</category>
			<dc:creator>Ciderhelm</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/58380-j-allen-brack-alex-afrasiabi-interview.html</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>General Icecrown Gated Progression</title>
			<link>http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/58300-icecrown-gated-progression.html</link>
			<pubDate>Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:03:44 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[
---Quote (Originally by Daelo)---
Icecrown Citadel testing has been progressing very well over the last few weeks, and this has been a huge help to the encounter design team. I want to thank everyone who has logged onto the PTR and tried the encounters there. 

As we're now getting closer to the release of 3.3.0, I wanted to talk about our plans for access progression within Icecrown Citadel. Icecrown Citadel is going to be broken up into four distinct sections: The Lower Spire, Plagueworks, Crimson Hall, and Frostwing Halls. We plan on releasing these four sections of Icecrown Citadel over time and not all immediately when patch 3.3.0 goes live. At this point I can't give precise dates for these release dates as they are determined by when patch 3.3.0 goes live. Once dates are known with more certainty, I'll update the community so they can plan appropriately. 

The first section that opens will include the Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Deathbringer Saurfang encounters. Progress beyond that point will be prevented for several weeks. Then the Plagueworks will open with Rotface, Festergut, and Professor Putricide becoming available. After another period of time, the Crimson Hall will open and you can then fight the Blood Princes and Blood-Queen Lana'thel. The final Frostwing Halls unlock then occurs after that, making Valithria Dreamwalker, Sindragosa, and the Lich King available. We believe a staggered release of the content will allow players to experience Icecrown Citadel at a sustainable, measured, and ultimately more enjoyable pace. 

There are other elements that gate access along the way. Players may not attempt any Heroic versions of 10 player encounters until they have defeated the Lich King in a 10 player raid. Similarly, players must defeat the Lich King in a 25 player raid before they can attempt a Heroic 25 player encounter. So players must master every normal difficulty encounter in Icecrown Citadel before attempting Heroic difficulty. 

The Lich King may not be attempted until Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, and Sindragosa are defeated. Furthermore, the Heroic difficulty of The Lich King encounter may not be attempted in any week unless the three aforementioned encounters have been defeated in Heroic difficulty that week. 

The Ashen Verdict provides reinforcements and material for players to assault Icecrown Citadel, but this support is not endless. Raids will have a limited number of attempts total each week to defeat the four most difficult encounters in Icecrown Citadel: Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. As these boss encounters are unlocked, the number of attempts available per week will increase. The initial number of attempts provided for defeating Professor Putricide is only five. When Blood-Queen Lana'thel unlocks, the amount of total attempts remaining will increase to 10. Then when Sindragosa and the Lich King unlock, 15 total attempts will be available to defeat all four bosses. After a raid has exhausted their attempts for the week, the Ashen Verdict must withdraw their support and the four most difficult bosses all despawn and become unavailable for the week. The limited attempt system is a feature of both Normal and Heroic difficulty. 

There will be no explicit rewards for defeating the Lich King with a specific number of attempts remaining as there was with Trial of the Grand Crusader. There will also not be an achievement to complete Icecrown Citadel without being defeated by a boss encounter, or letting a raid member die. (i.e. A Tribute to Insanity). 

In the weeks and months after all twelve encounters are unlocked, additional attempts against the final four boss encounters become available. This represents the Ashen Verdict growing more powerful and gaining a stronger foothold in Icecrown Citadel. To further help raids, Varian Wrynn and Garrosh Hellscream will begin to provide assistance by inspiring the armies attacking Icecrown Citadel. This is represented as an additional zone wide spell effect applied to all players that will increase their hit points, damage dealt, and healing done. This effect will also increase in effectiveness over time. Players may opt out of the spell's effect if they so wish.
---End Quote---
*Source* (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21038229051&sid=1)

My thoughts? Christmas has traditionally been a very difficult time for raiding guilds. Whether or not gated progression is good in general, it may just make the most sense for the seasonal release of this instance.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><div style="margin:20px; margin-top:5px; ">
	<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px">Quote:</div>
	<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%">
	<tr>
		<td class="alt2">
			<hr />
			
				<div>
					Originally Posted by <strong>Daelo</strong>
					
				</div>
				<div style="font-style:italic"><font class="blizzard">Icecrown Citadel testing has been progressing very well over the last few weeks, and this has been a huge help to the encounter design team. I want to thank everyone who has logged onto the PTR and tried the encounters there. <br />
<br />
As we're now getting closer to the release of 3.3.0, I wanted to talk about our plans for access progression within Icecrown Citadel. Icecrown Citadel is going to be broken up into four distinct sections: The Lower Spire, Plagueworks, Crimson Hall, and Frostwing Halls. We plan on releasing these four sections of Icecrown Citadel over time and not all immediately when patch 3.3.0 goes live. At this point I can't give precise dates for these release dates as they are determined by when patch 3.3.0 goes live. Once dates are known with more certainty, I'll update the community so they can plan appropriately. <br />
<br />
The first section that opens will include the Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Deathbringer Saurfang encounters. Progress beyond that point will be prevented for several weeks. Then the Plagueworks will open with Rotface, Festergut, and Professor Putricide becoming available. After another period of time, the Crimson Hall will open and you can then fight the Blood Princes and Blood-Queen Lana'thel. The final Frostwing Halls unlock then occurs after that, making Valithria Dreamwalker, Sindragosa, and the Lich King available. We believe a staggered release of the content will allow players to experience Icecrown Citadel at a sustainable, measured, and ultimately <i>more enjoyable</i> pace. <br />
<br />
There are other elements that gate access along the way. Players may not attempt any Heroic versions of 10 player encounters until they have defeated the Lich King in a 10 player raid. Similarly, players must defeat the Lich King in a 25 player raid before they can attempt a Heroic 25 player encounter. So players must master every normal difficulty encounter in Icecrown Citadel before attempting Heroic difficulty. <br />
<br />
The Lich King may not be attempted until Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, and Sindragosa are defeated. Furthermore, the Heroic difficulty of The Lich King encounter may not be attempted in any week unless the three aforementioned encounters have been defeated in Heroic difficulty that week. <br />
<br />
The Ashen Verdict provides reinforcements and material for players to assault Icecrown Citadel, but this support is not endless. Raids will have a limited number of attempts total each week to defeat the four most difficult encounters in Icecrown Citadel: Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. As these boss encounters are unlocked, the number of attempts available per week will increase. The initial number of attempts provided for defeating Professor Putricide is only five. When Blood-Queen Lana'thel unlocks, the amount of total attempts remaining will increase to 10. Then when Sindragosa and the Lich King unlock, 15 total attempts will be available to defeat all four bosses. After a raid has exhausted their attempts for the week, the Ashen Verdict must withdraw their support and the four most difficult bosses all despawn and become unavailable for the week. The limited attempt system is a feature of both Normal and Heroic difficulty. <br />
<br />
There will be no explicit rewards for defeating the Lich King with a specific number of attempts remaining as there was with Trial of the Grand Crusader. There will also not be an achievement to complete Icecrown Citadel without being defeated by a boss encounter, or letting a raid member die. (i.e. A Tribute to Insanity). <br />
<br />
In the weeks and months after all twelve encounters are unlocked, additional attempts against the final four boss encounters become available. This represents the Ashen Verdict growing more powerful and gaining a stronger foothold in Icecrown Citadel. To further help raids, Varian Wrynn and Garrosh Hellscream will begin to provide assistance by inspiring the armies attacking Icecrown Citadel. This is represented as an additional zone wide spell effect applied to all players that will increase their hit points, damage dealt, and healing done. This effect will also increase in effectiveness over time. Players may opt out of the spell's effect if they so wish.</font></div>
			
			<hr />
		</td>
	</tr>
	</table>
</div><a href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=21038229051&amp;sid=1" target="_blank"><b>Source</b></a><br />
<br />
My thoughts? Christmas has traditionally been a very difficult time for raiding guilds. Whether or not gated progression is good in general, it may just make the most sense for the seasonal release of this instance.</div>

]]></content:encoded>
			<category domain="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/">TankSpot News</category>
			<dc:creator>Ciderhelm</dc:creator>
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		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[General Weekly Frodo-Marmot, Elven Aliena & Murloc Marine Giveaway!]]></title>
			<link>http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/58209-weekly-frodo-marmot-elven-aliena-murloc-marine-giveaway.html</link>
			<pubDate>Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:44:45 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[Image: http://www.tankspot.com/photoplog/images/1/1_murlocmarine.jpg 

TankSpot is proud to announce that we're giving away five Murloc Marines each week for the next four weeks! To enter the contest this week, simply respond to this thread and end your post with a creative movie or song name with the word Murloc or Marmot in it (i.e. 'Murlocalypse Now').

We will randomly choose five winners each week. Among these five, we will also choose which we like the most and send that person two additional pets: Lil' KT and Pandaren.

You are welcome to respond multiple times to the thread to discuss the movies, but don't add the Murloc/Marmot line a second time! Posters who make multiple entries or post from multiple accounts will be disqualified. Members who haven't won a pet are welcome to re-enter the contest with each new week!

jeurlhq4oWI

KKPvcW5_Cs0

*These movies can be downloaded in high definition through our Donor Download Service. Click to learn more!* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f56/36281-tankspot-donation-information.html)]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><img src="http://www.tankspot.com/photoplog/images/1/1_murlocmarine.jpg" border="0" alt="" onload="NcodeImageResizer.createOn(this);" /><br />
<br />
TankSpot is proud to announce that we're giving away five Murloc Marines each week for the next four weeks! To enter the contest this week, simply respond to this thread and end your post with a creative movie or song name with the word Murloc or Marmot in it (i.e. 'Murlocalypse Now').<br />
<br />
We will randomly choose five winners each week. Among these five, we will also choose which we like the most and send that person two additional pets: Lil' KT and Pandaren.<br />
<br />
You are welcome to respond multiple times to the thread to discuss the movies, but don't add the Murloc/Marmot line a second time! Posters who make multiple entries or post from multiple accounts will be disqualified. Members who haven't won a pet are welcome to re-enter the contest with each new week!<br />
<br />
<object width="625" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jeurlhq4oWI"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jeurlhq4oWI" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="625" height="360"></embed></object><br />
<br />
<object width="625" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KKPvcW5_Cs0"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KKPvcW5_Cs0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="625" height="360"></embed></object><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f56/36281-tankspot-donation-information.html" target="_blank"><b>These movies can be downloaded in high definition through our Donor Download Service. Click to learn more!</b></a></div>

]]></content:encoded>
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			<dc:creator>Ciderhelm</dc:creator>
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			<title>General Jace Hall pre-Wrath Blizzard Interview!</title>
			<link>http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/58061-jace-hall-pre-wrath-blizzard-interview.html</link>
			<pubDate>Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:03:46 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[Khz9b3wz_zk

This is not one of our movies! It's a pretty funny interview between Jace Hall and several Blizzard developers that took place prior to the Wrath of the Lich King. It was sent to the official fansites this evening (yes, a year later!) for us to repost for the community. Enjoy!

Jace Hall's official website:
*Jace Hall : Morris Chestnut & Chadam - Watch the full episode now. - Crackle (http://www.crackle.com/c/Jace_Hall)*]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><object width="625" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Khz9b3wz_zk"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Khz9b3wz_zk" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="625" height="360"></embed></object><br />
<br />
This is not one of our movies! It's a pretty funny interview between Jace Hall and several Blizzard developers that took place prior to the Wrath of the Lich King. It was sent to the official fansites this evening (yes, a year later!) for us to repost for the community. Enjoy!<br />
<br />
Jace Hall's official website:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.crackle.com/c/Jace_Hall" target="_blank">Jace Hall : Morris Chestnut &amp; Chadam - Watch the full episode now. - Crackle</a></b></div>

]]></content:encoded>
			<category domain="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/">TankSpot News</category>
			<dc:creator>Ciderhelm</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/58061-jace-hall-pre-wrath-blizzard-interview.html</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[General Weekly Marmot, Fury Warrior & ToGC Healing, Hunter Guide!]]></title>
			<link>http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/57861-weekly-marmot-fury-warrior-togc-healing-hunter-guide.html</link>
			<pubDate>Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:51:42 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[Another week starting with a lot of new content! Be aware that I'll be editing the Weekly Marmot directly into this post when it's ready, so check back here if you're not subscribed to our YouTube channel.


*TheGreatMe's Fury Warrior Guide (Video & Written)*
Warriors are already familiar with TheGreatMe, or TGMofLos, for his past Fury movie guides. We're proud to announce his newest guide can be found here on TankSpot -- *Click here to read and view the guide!* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f177/57781-wotlk-fury-warrior-guide.html)


*Crocstar's Hunter Guide*
Crocstar has written an excellent Hunter resource for our DPS forums. He is the third member of Splug's guild, Angry, to contribute guides to the community. *Check this out here!* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f177/57603-hunter-raid-guide.html)


*The Weekly Marmot*
Frodo Gone Wild.

TjgZ-Xwd2UM


*A Healer's Perspective (Trial of the Grand Crusade 25-man)*
Aliena has created a video for our healing community covering specific healing issues and strategies in ToGC! (Also, she's put up a transcript *here* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f207/57889-togc-25-healer-s-perspective.html))

_HWNjksReV8


*Regarding Our Community*
Our website is not designed to support the diversity of subjects, classes, and roles we've taken on in the last year. With growing Healing and DPS communities and the intent to expand our news coverage beyond just raiding and class news, we're going to have to rebuild parts of this site from scratch when we implement vBulletin 4. I've already asked for the healers' feedback *here* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f207/57849-what-would-you-like-out-healing-community.html), but anyone else is welcome to jump in on the discussion.

The vBulletin team has *given us a preview* (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/content.php) of their new CMS (frontpage), and as a web developer I am very excited for the potential. Practically speaking, this will make finding the class, role, raid, or other information you're looking for much easier, which in turn means we'll be able to shove a lot more news out without worrying about what we're bumping down.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>Another week starting with a lot of new content! Be aware that I'll be editing the Weekly Marmot directly into this post when it's ready, so check back here if you're not subscribed to our YouTube channel.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>TheGreatMe's Fury Warrior Guide (Video &amp; Written)</b><br />
Warriors are already familiar with TheGreatMe, or TGMofLos, for his past Fury movie guides. We're proud to announce his newest guide can be found here on TankSpot -- <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f177/57781-wotlk-fury-warrior-guide.html" target="_blank"><b>Click here to read and view the guide!</b></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Crocstar's Hunter Guide</b><br />
Crocstar has written an excellent Hunter resource for our DPS forums. He is the third member of Splug's guild, Angry, to contribute guides to the community. <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f177/57603-hunter-raid-guide.html" target="_blank"><b>Check this out here!</b></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>The Weekly Marmot</b><br />
Frodo Gone Wild.<br />
<br />
<object width="625" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TjgZ-Xwd2UM"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TjgZ-Xwd2UM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="625" height="360"></embed></object><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>A Healer's Perspective (Trial of the Grand Crusade 25-man)</b><br />
Aliena has created a video for our healing community covering specific healing issues and strategies in ToGC! (Also, she's put up a transcript <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f207/57889-togc-25-healer-s-perspective.html" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>)<br />
<br />
<object width="625" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_HWNjksReV8"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_HWNjksReV8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="625" height="360"></embed></object><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Regarding Our Community</b><br />
Our website is not designed to support the diversity of subjects, classes, and roles we've taken on in the last year. With growing Healing and DPS communities and the intent to expand our news coverage beyond just raiding and class news, we're going to have to rebuild parts of this site from scratch when we implement vBulletin 4. I've already asked for the healers' feedback <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f207/57849-what-would-you-like-out-healing-community.html" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>, but anyone else is welcome to jump in on the discussion.<br />
<br />
The vBulletin team has <a href="http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/content.php" target="_blank"><b>given us a preview</b></a> of their new CMS (frontpage), and as a web developer I am very excited for the potential. Practically speaking, this will make finding the class, role, raid, or other information you're looking for much easier, which in turn means we'll be able to shove a lot more news out without worrying about what we're bumping down.</div>

]]></content:encoded>
			<category domain="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/">TankSpot News</category>
			<dc:creator>Ciderhelm</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/57861-weekly-marmot-fury-warrior-togc-healing-hunter-guide.html</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[General Weekly Marmot & Introducing Aliena]]></title>
			<link>http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/57599-weekly-marmot-introducing-aliena.html</link>
			<pubDate>Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:21:17 GMT</pubDate>
			<description>N_dQNNlsSvE

0dQzB9Ubiw8</description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div><object width="625" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/N_dQNNlsSvE"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/N_dQNNlsSvE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="625" height="360"></embed></object><br />
<br />
<object width="625" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0dQzB9Ubiw8"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0dQzB9Ubiw8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="625" height="360"></embed></object><a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f56/36281-tankspot-donation-information.html" target="_blank"><br />
</a></div>

]]></content:encoded>
			<category domain="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/">TankSpot News</category>
			<dc:creator>Ciderhelm</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/57599-weekly-marmot-introducing-aliena.html</guid>
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			<title><![CDATA[General Restoration & Feral Druid Guides, Character Management Guide]]></title>
			<link>http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/57497-restoration-feral-druid-guides-character-management-guide.html</link>
			<pubDate>Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:46:42 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[Llego, a raiding Druid in Splug's guild, Angry, put together a *Restoration Druid video guide* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f207/57449-wotlk-restoration-druid-guide.html) which can be found stickied in our *Healing Discussion.* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f207/)

For our feral-minded visitors, Geros has put together an in-depth *Cat DPS guide* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f177/57393-wotlk-cat-dps-guide.html) which he intends to keep updated through Cataclysm.

Finally, Oddly put together *At the Top of Your Game* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f200/57429-top-your-game.html), an extensive commentary on methods to learn how to play your class (from the perspective of a Priest, but useful to other classes).]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>Llego, a raiding Druid in Splug's guild, Angry, put together a <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f207/57449-wotlk-restoration-druid-guide.html" target="_blank"><b>Restoration Druid video guide</b></a> which can be found stickied in our <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f207/" target="_blank"><b>Healing Discussion.</b></a><br />
<br />
For our feral-minded visitors, Geros has put together an in-depth <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f177/57393-wotlk-cat-dps-guide.html" target="_blank"><b>Cat DPS guide</b></a> which he intends to keep updated through Cataclysm.<br />
<br />
Finally, Oddly put together <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f200/57429-top-your-game.html" target="_blank"><b>At the Top of Your Game</b></a>, an extensive commentary on methods to learn how to play your class (from the perspective of a Priest, but useful to other classes).</div>

]]></content:encoded>
			<category domain="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/">TankSpot News</category>
			<dc:creator>Ciderhelm</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/57497-restoration-feral-druid-guides-character-management-guide.html</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>General Chill of the Throne</title>
			<link>http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/57477-chill-throne.html</link>
			<pubDate>Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:36:09 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[Earlier today, Daelo made the announcement on both the official Tanking and Dungeons & Raids forums that there will, in fact, be an "Icecrown Radiance":


---Quote (Originally by Daelo)---
For Icecrown Citadel, we are implementing a spell that will affect every enemy creature in the raid. The spell, called Chill of the Throne, will allow creatures to ignore 20% of the dodge chance of their melee targets. So if a raid's main tank had 30% dodge normally, in Icecrown Citadel they will effectively have 10%. 

Why are we doing this? 

The high levels of tank avoidance players have obtained is making the incoming damage a tank DOES take more "spiky" than is healthy for raiding. Ideally, tanks would be receiving a relatively constant stream of damage over time. This allows healers to better plan their healing strategy, broaden their spell options, and simply give more time to react. Tanks could use their cooldowns more reactively. Instead, the current situation is that if we make a hard hitting melee boss and a tank doesn't avoid two successive swings then the tank could very well be dead in that 1-2 second window. The use of reactive defensive abilities instead becomes a methodically planned affair, healers have to spam their largest heals just in case the huge damage spike happens. 

We've been trying to do a fair amount to mitigate the effect of high tank avoidance on the encounter side of things during this expansion with faster melee swings, additional melee strikes, dual wielding, narrowing the normal variance of melee swing damage, and various other tricks. There's a limit to what we can do, however. So to give us a bit of breathing room we&#8217;ve implemented Chill of the Throne. Going forward past Icecrown Citadel, we have plans to keep tank avoidance from growing so high again. 

We'll have this on the PTR soon so players can see the effects inside Icecrown Raid.
---End Quote---
*Source (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=1&topicId=20677352542&pageNo=1&ST=US-3053503-EddaqoxOf0NOBxKb0cfpsAaiXJSqEMB5yzs#0)*

This has resulted in an unsurprisingly heated debate, both on the *official forums* (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=20677632379&sid=1&pageNo=1#0) and *here on Tankspot* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f56/57472-chill-throne.html).]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>Earlier today, Daelo made the announcement on both the official Tanking and Dungeons &amp; Raids forums that there will, in fact, be an &quot;Icecrown Radiance&quot;:<br />
<br />
<div style="margin:20px; margin-top:5px; ">
	<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px">Quote:</div>
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				<div>
					Originally Posted by <strong>Daelo</strong>
					
				</div>
				<div style="font-style:italic"><font class="blizzard">For Icecrown Citadel, we are implementing a spell that will affect every enemy creature in the raid. The spell, called Chill of the Throne, will allow creatures to ignore 20% of the dodge chance of their melee targets. So if a raid's main tank had 30% dodge normally, in Icecrown Citadel they will effectively have 10%. <br />
<br />
Why are we doing this? <br />
<br />
The high levels of tank avoidance players have obtained is making the incoming damage a tank DOES take more &quot;spiky&quot; than is healthy for raiding. Ideally, tanks would be receiving a relatively constant stream of damage over time. This allows healers to better plan their healing strategy, broaden their spell options, and simply give more time to react. Tanks could use their cooldowns more reactively. Instead, the current situation is that if we make a hard hitting melee boss and a tank doesn't avoid two successive swings then the tank could very well be dead in that 1-2 second window. The use of reactive defensive abilities instead becomes a methodically planned affair, healers have to spam their largest heals just in case the huge damage spike happens. <br />
<br />
We've been trying to do a fair amount to mitigate the effect of high tank avoidance on the encounter side of things during this expansion with faster melee swings, additional melee strikes, dual wielding, narrowing the normal variance of melee swing damage, and various other tricks. There's a limit to what we can do, however. So to give us a bit of breathing room we&#8217;ve implemented Chill of the Throne. Going forward past Icecrown Citadel, we have plans to keep tank avoidance from growing so high again. <br />
<br />
We'll have this on the PTR soon so players can see the effects inside Icecrown Raid.</font></div>
			
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</div><b><a href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=1&amp;topicId=20677352542&amp;pageNo=1&amp;ST=US-3053503-EddaqoxOf0NOBxKb0cfpsAaiXJSqEMB5yzs#0" target="_blank">Source</a></b><br />
<br />
This has resulted in an unsurprisingly heated debate, both on the <a href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=20677632379&amp;sid=1&amp;pageNo=1#0" target="_blank"><b>official forums</b></a> and <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f56/57472-chill-throne.html" target="_blank"><b>here on Tankspot</b></a>.</div>

]]></content:encoded>
			<category domain="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/">TankSpot News</category>
			<dc:creator>Lore</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/57477-chill-throne.html</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[General Aliena's Guide to the Discipline Priest]]></title>
			<link>http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/57373-aliena-s-guide-discipline-priest.html</link>
			<pubDate>Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:52:46 GMT</pubDate>
			<description>Aliena has published the video for her *Discipline Priest guide* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f207/57156-wotlk-disc-priest-guide.html) in the *Healing forums!* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f207/)</description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>Aliena has published the video for her <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f207/57156-wotlk-disc-priest-guide.html" target="_blank"><b>Discipline Priest guide</b></a> in the <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f207/" target="_blank"><b>Healing forums!</b></a></div>

]]></content:encoded>
			<category domain="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/">TankSpot News</category>
			<dc:creator>Ciderhelm</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/57373-aliena-s-guide-discipline-priest.html</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title><![CDATA[General The Weekly Marmot, Anub'arak 25 Hard and More!]]></title>
			<link>http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/57333-weekly-marmot-anub-arak-25-hard-more.html</link>
			<pubDate>Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:48:23 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[Where to begin with this lengthy news post? Well, to start, let's go ahead and get one thing out of the way -- there's plenty more coming in the next couple weeks and you should keep checking back for more. With that said...

*Anub'arak 25-man Hard Mode*
Splug has completed his 25-man Heroic Anub'arak guide which we've appended to the *Anub'arak strategy thread.* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f206/55360-coliseum-anub-arak-hard-mode.html)


*The Weekly Marmot -- Episode 1*
Lore and I were discussing ways to keep the site updates on news and keep that personal touch involved that we used to have on the site with the podcasts. He came up with a brilliant idea -- let's plaster his face on our frontpage every week! With no further ado, here's Episode 1!

NNMAeiHkSpE

Image: http://www.tankspot.com/forums/images/snowfall/donorbanner.jpg  (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f56/36281-tankspot-donation-information.html)

As a side note, we'll most likely release movies on YouTube on monday so our subscribers will receive a message by Tuesday. :)


*Donor Recruitment Forums*
We've made a few fundamental changes to our *Guild Recruitment* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f94/) forums, including putting them in a far more visible location on the site, right beneath our raiding movies forum. The biggest change is that new recruitment threads can now only be created by Donors and Authors on the site. Additionally, threads can no longer be bumped and expire automatically, at which point authors are welcome to create them again. Note: We are not deleting any threads currently in the forum; they will expire naturally over the course of the next month.

These changes should cut down heavily on the bump spam we were seeing and should ease up a lot of the clutter in the Guild Recruitment forums. They are part of our standard *Donor access* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f56/36281-tankspot-donation-information.html) to the site and will be included in any future subscriptions we create.



*TankSpot & Cataclysm (Our Outlook on a Broader Community)*
As most of you have figured out at this point, a lot of the new content on this site over the last year has been intended to reach different audiences. Most of the time this includes tanks, but less often than in the past does it exclusively cover tanks.

Before going further: One thing we've been quick to note is that new communities on the site (such as the larger raiding community) are brought here in addition to the core of tanks that are the foundation here. However, it's also fair to say that I've personally shifted focus towards the raiding movies and, more recently, towards administering the site. This means you don't see as much tanking news that I would have normally been posting in the past. We're actively going to fix this.

With that said, TankSpot has, in terms of traffic, become one of the major WoW destinations. Going into Cataclysm, we're fully intending to become an all-purpose site that nearly anyone playing WoW can access and find something they're looking for and would enjoy. The foundation for Healers has already been laid by *Aliena* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/aliena.html), who will be organizing the *Healing community* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f207/) on our site as we develop further in this direction. She's uploading the Discipline Priest movies as I write this! Additionally, we're expecting guides from a variety of other classes in the near future. Parts of the site will change to accomodate these new communities and we'll need to do some overall restructuring to make the site more coherent.

In Cataclysm, we're aiming to cover more subjects through videos, including leveling, instances, and a variety of other related subjects. As you see above, we'll be adding a more personal touch with Weekly Marmot videos!

Quality is important to us and we're being careful to look for authors who are in a position to act as authorities on their subjects. Just as importantly, we judge our potential authors based on how respectful they are towards players of all skill levels and backgrounds. If you've enjoyed the many movies *Aliena* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/aliena.html) and *Splug* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/splug.html) have produced, keep this in mind -- they write and create their own movies entirely independently, without supervision or direction from Lore or myself. We expect this quality in our future authors and are vetting them the same way.

We're also planning on extending our outreach to promote blogs and communities outside of our own, so please feel free to contact us if you're from another community and interested in promoting your own awesomeness as Cataclysm approaches!


*20 Million Marmots*
We've reached a new milestone with 20 million combined views on our *YouTube* (http://www.youtube.com/user/Ciderhelm) channel this morning. This is obviously a very exciting event for us and we're ecstatic that the community has followed us this far. Expect many more movies, both for raiding and in new areas such as class guides and other means of character progression -- and we'll make sure they're up to the standard you've come to expect. Also, we strongly encourage anyone with a YouTube account to Subscribe to our channel by clicking the large yellow button on our channel page or any movie page.


*New Site Promotions*
*Lore* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/lore.html) has been promoted to administrator status on the site (red name, like *Satrina* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/satrina.html) and *mine* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/ciderhelm.html)). *Penlowe* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/penlowe.html) is our new assistant on the site and has a corresponding purple name -- when you have questions and comments, she is the most likely person you'll be talking to! Penlowe will also be reaching out to the larger WoW community and getting in touch with site and blog authors around the web. Finally, *Shortypop* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/shortypop.html) has been promoted to Author status for her regular, quality blog authorship on the community (check out the blogs *here* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blog.php)).

Several new authors are going to be promoted in the next few weeks as we start to collect class guides from across the WoW community. As a related side note, I've been meaning to make a post recognizing *Satorri* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/satorri.html) for his quality and consistency in posting for the community -- good job!


That's it for now! Stay tuned for more! 


For all of those asking about Lore's UI you can jump straight to his UI thread *here.* (http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f211/45772-lore-s-ui.html)]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>Where to begin with this lengthy news post? Well, to start, let's go ahead and get one thing out of the way -- there's plenty more coming in the next couple weeks and you should keep checking back for more. With that said...<br />
<br />
<b>Anub'arak 25-man Hard Mode</b><br />
Splug has completed his 25-man Heroic Anub'arak guide which we've appended to the <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f206/55360-coliseum-anub-arak-hard-mode.html" target="_blank"><b>Anub'arak strategy thread.</b></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>The Weekly Marmot -- Episode 1</b><br />
Lore and I were discussing ways to keep the site updates on news and keep that personal touch involved that we used to have on the site with the podcasts. He came up with a brilliant idea -- let's plaster his face on our frontpage every week! With no further ado, here's Episode 1!<br />
<br />
<object width="625" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NNMAeiHkSpE"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NNMAeiHkSpE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="625" height="360"></embed></object><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f56/36281-tankspot-donation-information.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/images/snowfall/donorbanner.jpg" border="0" alt="" onload="NcodeImageResizer.createOn(this);" /></a><br />
<br />
As a side note, we'll most likely release movies on YouTube on monday so our subscribers will receive a message by Tuesday. :)<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Donor Recruitment Forums</b><br />
We've made a few fundamental changes to our <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f94/" target="_blank"><b>Guild Recruitment</b></a> forums, including putting them in a far more visible location on the site, right beneath our raiding movies forum. The biggest change is that new recruitment threads can now only be created by Donors and Authors on the site. Additionally, threads can no longer be bumped and expire automatically, at which point authors are welcome to create them again. Note: We are not deleting any threads currently in the forum; they will expire naturally over the course of the next month.<br />
<br />
These changes should cut down heavily on the bump spam we were seeing and should ease up a lot of the clutter in the Guild Recruitment forums. They are part of our standard <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f56/36281-tankspot-donation-information.html" target="_blank"><b>Donor access</b></a> to the site and will be included in any future subscriptions we create.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>TankSpot &amp; Cataclysm (Our Outlook on a Broader Community)</b><br />
As most of you have figured out at this point, a lot of the new content on this site over the last year has been intended to reach different audiences. Most of the time this includes tanks, but less often than in the past does it exclusively cover tanks.<br />
<br />
Before going further: One thing we've been quick to note is that new communities on the site (such as the larger raiding community) are brought here in addition to the core of tanks that are the foundation here. However, it's also fair to say that I've personally shifted focus towards the raiding movies and, more recently, towards administering the site. This means you don't see as much tanking news that I would have normally been posting in the past. We're actively going to fix this.<br />
<br />
With that said, TankSpot has, in terms of traffic, become one of the major WoW destinations. Going into Cataclysm, we're fully intending to become an all-purpose site that nearly anyone playing WoW can access and find something they're looking for and would enjoy. The foundation for Healers has already been laid by <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/aliena.html" target="_blank"><b>Aliena</b></a>, who will be organizing the <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f207/" target="_blank"><b>Healing community</b></a> on our site as we develop further in this direction. She's uploading the Discipline Priest movies as I write this! Additionally, we're expecting guides from a variety of other classes in the near future. Parts of the site will change to accomodate these new communities and we'll need to do some overall restructuring to make the site more coherent.<br />
<br />
In Cataclysm, we're aiming to cover more subjects through videos, including leveling, instances, and a variety of other related subjects. As you see above, we'll be adding a more personal touch with Weekly Marmot videos!<br />
<br />
Quality is important to us and we're being careful to look for authors who are in a position to act as authorities on their subjects. Just as importantly, we judge our potential authors based on how respectful they are towards players of all skill levels and backgrounds. If you've enjoyed the many movies <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/aliena.html" target="_blank"><b>Aliena</b></a> and <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/splug.html" target="_blank"><b>Splug</b></a> have produced, keep this in mind -- they write and create their own movies entirely independently, without supervision or direction from Lore or myself. We expect this quality in our future authors and are vetting them the same way.<br />
<br />
We're also planning on extending our outreach to promote blogs and communities outside of our own, so please feel free to contact us if you're from another community and interested in promoting your own awesomeness as Cataclysm approaches!<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>20 Million Marmots</b><br />
We've reached a new milestone with 20 million combined views on our <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/Ciderhelm" target="_blank"><b>YouTube</b></a> channel this morning. This is obviously a very exciting event for us and we're ecstatic that the community has followed us this far. Expect many more movies, both for raiding and in new areas such as class guides and other means of character progression -- and we'll make sure they're up to the standard you've come to expect. Also, we strongly encourage anyone with a YouTube account to Subscribe to our channel by clicking the large yellow button on our channel page or any movie page.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>New Site Promotions</b><br />
<a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/lore.html" target="_blank"><b>Lore</b></a> has been promoted to administrator status on the site (red name, like <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/satrina.html" target="_blank"><b>Satrina</b></a> and <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/ciderhelm.html" target="_blank"><b>mine</b></a>). <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/penlowe.html" target="_blank"><b>Penlowe</b></a> is our new assistant on the site and has a corresponding purple name -- when you have questions and comments, she is the most likely person you'll be talking to! Penlowe will also be reaching out to the larger WoW community and getting in touch with site and blog authors around the web. Finally, <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/shortypop.html" target="_blank"><b>Shortypop</b></a> has been promoted to Author status for her regular, quality blog authorship on the community (check out the blogs <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/blog.php" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>).<br />
<br />
Several new authors are going to be promoted in the next few weeks as we start to collect class guides from across the WoW community. As a related side note, I've been meaning to make a post recognizing <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/members/satorri.html" target="_blank"><b>Satorri</b></a> for his quality and consistency in posting for the community -- good job!<br />
<br />
<br />
That's it for now! Stay tuned for more! <br />
<br />
<br />
For all of those asking about Lore's UI you can jump straight to his UI thread <a href="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f211/45772-lore-s-ui.html" target="_blank"><b>here.</b></a></div>

]]></content:encoded>
			<category domain="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/">TankSpot News</category>
			<dc:creator>Ciderhelm</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/57333-weekly-marmot-anub-arak-25-hard-more.html</guid>
		</item>
		<item>
			<title>General Stay tuned these coming weeks!</title>
			<link>http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/57267-stay-tuned-these-coming-weeks.html</link>
			<pubDate>Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:23:19 GMT</pubDate>
			<description><![CDATA[We haven't had too much going on in the news department recently, but we've been working behind the scenes to bring some positive changes to the site. Stay tuned to TankSpot and keep your eyes peeled to our YouTube channel in the coming days and weeks. :)]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>We haven't had too much going on in the news department recently, but we've been working behind the scenes to bring some positive changes to the site. Stay tuned to TankSpot and keep your eyes peeled to our YouTube channel in the coming days and weeks. :)</div>

]]></content:encoded>
			<category domain="http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/">TankSpot News</category>
			<dc:creator>Ciderhelm</dc:creator>
			<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/57267-stay-tuned-these-coming-weeks.html</guid>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
